Sources in Iraq deny media claims in Iran of attack on ‘Israelis’

Sources in Iraq deny media claims in Iran of attack on ‘Israelis’

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Sources in northern Iraq deny claims by Iranian Press TV that there was an attack on ‘Mossad agents’. Earlier in the evening, outlets in Iraq and those linked to Iran, including Press TV, reported that “Israel’s Mossad spy agency was attacked in Iraq.” The report is based on a claim in Sabereen News.

However, four separate expert sources all denied that there was an attack in northern Iraq. There is no accurate information on the location, one source said. None of the Kurdish newspapers in northern Iraq reported or were informed of the event on Tuesday night.

The sensitive nature of the claims coupled with the lack of detail left many skeptical about whether an attack had taken place. Pro-Iran militias in Iraq have been firing rockets at US troops there for the past two years. These rockets are even aimed at Erbil, the capital of the Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq. In addition, contractors who worked with U.S.-led coalition forces were killed by the rocket attacks. Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq often express hatred towards Israel as part of their pro-Iran worldview. Some have promised to attack Israel in the past. In July 2019, a member of the Iraqi parliament claimed that the “US Embassy in Baghdad serves as the headquarters for Mossad.” It is part of the pro-Iranian story and claims that the US and Israel are the main opponents in the region of Iran’s ‘resistance’.

On April 10, rumors in Iraq under one pro-Iran source claimed that Turkey’s intelligence agency was cooperating with Israel against pro-Iranian groups in Sinjar in northern Iraq. There is no evidence of this. In late June and early July 2020, Hadi al-Amiri and other pro-Iranian voices accused Israel of flooding Iraqi airspace. In September 2019, pro-Iranian voices in Iraq claimed that there was an Israeli military presence in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq. The local authorities in Kurdistan denied the report.

These types of rumors, which sometimes move in the major Iranian media, tend to prove. So far, no one has confirmed details regarding the claims and the Sabereen news claim on April 13.

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